Thank goodness for little bees

We have quite a few of these little bees and they are so busy digging the pollen from the flowers. I managed to make a video of this one working away for at least a minute and now have a much greater understanding of the process by which they store the pollen to take back to the nest. We have so many types of bees in New Mexico that I'm not sure if this is a very small honey bee or a Mason bee.

The view of my garden from my favorite chair under the kitchen window. I'm pretty much surrounded by herbs and roses and daisies at his point. The yellow spikes are Straw Foxglove (Digitalis lutea) one of my all time favorite flowers. The five red pots at the far end contain tomatoes, peppers and mesclun.  I'm also trying ginger  in one of them but I think it is a no go, we'll see.
It pleases me no end to have a garden that is mostly herbs and vegetables with a few flowers thrown in for color.

With so many uses for herbs and their ability to stay green most of the year they are a real plus in an area without much natural moisture.  When I lived in the East with all the rain my gardens were more separated as to plant material.

One of these days I'll post some photos of my past gardens.

Some of my favorites

This is the shady corner of the south garden, where the new peonies thrive, the little rose bush is happy and snow-in-summer makes me very happy. As always, if you double click on the collage it should enlarge enough to see more detail.  This winter we had the trees creating the shade topped and thinned, the man who did the trimming was an artist and he left spaces for the morning sun to come though and spot light the various plants. 

Finally.......

Being the procrastinator-in-chief that I am, I apologize to Gillian for taking forever to give you all the names of some of the plants in her garden...and now here are the major stars.

1. Ilex verticulata 'Winter Red' (F) & Late Male (M)
2. Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
3. Eupatorium maculatum 'Gateway'
4. Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird'
5. Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet'
6. Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstonne'
7&10 Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diablo'
8. Aster nova English 'Purple Dome'
9. Spiraea japonica 'Little Princess'
11 Panicum alarum 'Dewey Blue'
12 Chamaecyparis
13 Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Thread'
14 Pierus mungo 'Slowmound'
15 Apple tree, old standard, variety unknown
16 Calycanthus floridus
17 Fothergilla gardenii 'Mount Airy'
18 Kerria japonica
19 Hydrangea serrata 'Tiny Tuff Stuff'
20 Stachys, pruned
21 Woolly Thyme
22 Thyme
23 Filipendula
24 Burdock, to be removed after flowering this year!
25 Iris 

Whew, Thank you Gillian for supplying us with all those names!
Fantastic garden!